S is for Shepard
by Palaven Blues
Summary: An alphabet fic of different Shepards, each with a short vignette. Updates as I have time.


_Okay, so I know I should start with A, but I didn't. Also, I know S is #19, but there are two K's, Kate with Garrus, and Kara with Tali. This one is Sully, an fShep shipping with Miri._

* * *

Chapter Twenty

_Sweet Victory_

Miranda glared at the domino spread in front of her. She loved the woman, but sometimes she was just _infuriating._

The object of her ire sat across from her, hair falling into her eyes in gold … well, you could call them "curls," but it'd be generous. "Tangles" might be more accurate. Sullivan "Call me Sully" Shepard chewed on a toothpick as she leaned back, her chair precariously balanced on two legs. Green eyes sparkled in a tan, freckled face.

"Looks like someone owes me another massage," Sully crowed.

Miranda could only glower. So far, she'd lost at poker, Monopoly, Sorry, and a host of other games.

Including Hungry Hungry Hippos.

_We played six times! How is it even possible to lose that game six times in a row?!_ Miranda didn't understand it. She'd always been good at everything. Her eyes began to sting.

"Aw, Miri, don't pout." Sully got up and circled the table to her side, wrapping her arms around Miranda from behind. "Come on, it's just a game. You can lose a game sometimes."

"I'm fine," she said, the frost in her tone clear enough for even Sully Shepard to hear it. _Or I would be fine, if it actually was "sometimes." Can't you lose just one?_

"Ouch." Sully pulled back, shaking her hand as though she'd burned it on the stove. "Phew. Maybe we shouldn't play anymore—"

"No!" Miranda shouted, then made an effort to regain her composure. She took a deep breath, straightened her hair, rubbed her nose. "No, it'll be fine. Learning that I don't have to be the best at everything will be good for me." She smiled then, and gave her girlfriend a tight hug, nipping her ear before letting go. "Shall we go to bed?"

Later, when they lay back exhausted, Miranda's blue eyes opened, staring at the woman she loved with a gaze that could have been made of ice.

_Like I'm going to let you stop playing me while you're the undefeated champion. I love you, darl, but you're going down._

Sully lay sprawled across three quarters of the bed, her chest rising and falling evenly; her rest blissfully undisturbed by her imminent doom.

#

"Pictionary," Miranda declared, slamming the game box down on the table in the mess hall.

Sully looked up from her datapad, one leg slung across the back of her chair, what looked like half an apple in her mouth. Her cheeks plumped out like a chipmunk's.

"Whshat?" she slurred.

"Pictionary," Miranda repeated. "We're playing." This one was good. She knew she could draw decently. Sully would never know what hit her.

"Thasha team—"

"Will you _please_ swallow your food and then talk? I know it's a team game. Ken and Gabby will be joining us." The hook baited, all Miranda had to do was wait.

Sully chugged half a soda, finally managing to clear her mouth. "Sounds good. If we're on the same team, we can both win. And you don't have to feel bad for—"

"Sully!" Miranda hissed. Looking around the mess, she saw several people glance over, probably overhearing the whole thing. "Private, Sully. Some things are _private."_ She was lucky she wasn't a blusher; she cringed, wondering how many people listening in knew that she got upset when she lost at games.

"I'm sorry, babe." Sully's face fell, and Miranda softened.

Every time she objected to something, she could tell Sully truly felt bad for whatever she'd done. Tough exterior, but devastated whenever she hurt someone, even inadvertently.

"It's all right, darl. But anyway, we're splitting the teams. You want Ken, or Gabby?" _Hook baited. Fish is nosing around the hook. All I need is one bite …._

"Ken, I'll take Ken," Sully said quickly, her eyes slightly wide in panic.

Miranda smiled. She had been there the day Gabby got out of engineering, and backed Sully into a corner talking about girly things; poor Sully had never seen it coming. Miranda eventually had to rescue her, jumping into the conversation about shoes from Milan to let Sully escape.

"All right, darl. You can team with Ken, and I'll team with Gabby." _Who may or may not have taken an art minor in college._ She smiled again. This would be the one.

#

It wasn't.

_"How_ in God's name is that a _bloody FISH?!"_ Miranda screamed at Gabby. Biotics flared around her, a faint blue glow that Ken and Gabby both shrank back from.

The last engineer, Sully, vaulted the table, grabbing her by the arms. "Miri? Honey? Let's take a deep breath." She ducked, looking directly into Miranda's eyes. "Baby, it's just a game."

Tears stung her eyes. It _wasn't_ just a game. It was losing _every single game_ they had played. "I'm sorry," she told Gabby and Ken. "I've got a bit of a headache. Overreacting."

#

_"Have to do better than that, Princess."_

Miranda ignored her father's voice as she brushed her teeth. Or rather, she tried to ignore it. She wasn't used to losing. Especially not so consistently. She glared when Sully came in to take her shower.

"Hey, babe. Wanna join me?" Sully grinned, making silly faces of pretend-lasciviousness.

Miranda spit her toothpaste into the sink. "No, thank you," she said, putting the brush away and leaving the bathroom.

That day, she lost at Trivial Pursuit.

The next day, it was Uno. Miranda ended that one with about twenty cards in her hand.

The next night, when Sully tried to claim a headache, Miri pressed her into Jenga.

Sully leaned into the table, tongue poking out of her mouth as she took one of the base pieces. The tower wobbled menacingly, but held.

Miranda held her breath, then seeing it wasn't going to fall for Sully, reached slowly for a side piece. It was barely hanging onto the tower, anyway. She'd be able to get it.

The tower wavered again before she could even touch it.

_I can't I can't lose another one I can't!_

Without realizing what she was doing, Miri sent a stabilizing push of biotics, the gentlest steadying phantom hand. She pulled her Jenga piece, setting it delicately on top of the mess.

A look crossed Sully's face, a fleeting glimpse of irritation, but she moved to take her turn.

_She knows. She saw me use my biotics on that one._ Miranda chewed her lip. She hadn't meant to. And the way Sully played games, it wasn't even fair. She was just evening up the competition, after all.

It's not like there was even a rule against biotic use in Jenga.

Sully worked her piece out of the middle of the stack. The tower shifted, then stilled; the tiniest wrong movement now would have it ….

The tower crumpled.

"I saw that," Sully yelled over the sound of blocks scattering everywhere.

"Saw what?" Miranda kept her face blank. She hadn't done anything, had she?

"You nudged it! With your biotics, I saw you. Play the game or don't, but if you're gonna cheat—"

Miranda's lip trembled, and that was the only warning she got before bursting into tears. She scrambled away from the table, sprinting to the bathroom to lock herself in. Before slamming the door shut, she caught a glimpse of Sully's eyes, already wide with guilt over making her girlfriend cry.

_Serves you right._ Miranda sat on the floor, knees curled up against her chest, sobbing.

Outside, Sully tapped at the door. "Miri? Babe? I'm sorry, I didn't mean it."

Miranda only wept, huge, wracking sobs that shook her entire body.

"Baby, please." Sully sounded close to tears now, scratching lightly at the door like a kitten who'd been locked out. "If you don't let me in, I'm going to have to hack the door, and then I'll feel worse."

Blinded by tears, Miranda slapped her hand against the door until she found the panel to unlock it. The door slid open, and Sully crawled in, wrapping herself around her crying girlfriend.

"Baby, I didn't mean it, I'm sorry, don't cry." Her eyes were wet already, as well; now Miranda could feel bad for cheating _and_ for making _her_ girlfriend cry.

"I didn't think it would be so important," Sully wondered aloud.

"It's _not!_ It's just that I'm s-supposed to be good at everything. I'm not supposed to _l-l-loooose,"_ Miri wailed.

"Shhh, baby, it's okay." Sully held her, petting her dark hair and rocking her until the storm abated.

Miranda cried until she was limp, collapsing against Sully's chest, burying her face in her neck. "I'm sorry," she finally said.

"No, I'm sorry. Look, Miri …." Sully took a deep, sighing breath; ran one hand through her own bird's-nest hair. "I love playing games. I do. I could happily do nothing but play board games every day. But, Miri …." She cupped Miranda's face, drawing it up until she could look her in the eyes. "If this is what it does to you, then I never want to play another game again as long as I live."

This triggered another round of wailing from Miranda, who clung to Sully until she felt utterly exhausted. Sully kept petting her until she'd finally cried herself out.

"It's okay. Come on, babe." Sully slipped an arm under her legs, keeping the other around her shoulders, and lifted Miri off the floor. She carried her to the bed, then tucked her in, curling up around her.

Miranda leaned back, relishing being the little spoon, loving her woman's lanky strength. "I love you, Sully." She didn't say it enough; she should say it more.

"I know, babe. I love you, too."

#

Miranda woke feeling embarrassed, shame at last night's behavior nearly overwhelming her to the point of going back to bed; she should claim sick, and just stay locked in Sully's cabin all day.

_You're better than that, Miri,_ she told herself. So instead, she got up to get dressed, her hands happening across her fanciest set of lacy pink underwear.

The set Sully loved.

… the set that always made Sully forget whatever she was doing.

A tickle of an idea made Miranda smile, and she wiggled into her lacy bra and panties. Over that went her snug uniform, with a couple of dabs of perfume strategically placed before she zipped it shut. Lastly, she found the necklace Sully had bought her, a pretty little cameo that would be hidden in the uniform, but sit nicely on her cleavage once the uniform top was off.

_You are the love of my life and a good woman. But I'll be damned if you get to be undefeated champion, too._

She waited until Sully had a lunch break, then asked if she could come back to the cabin.

"What's up?" Sully asked, bursting through the door. "Is anything wrong?" She rested a hand on Miri's arm; glancing nervously around.

Miranda kept her hands behind her back. "I thought we could play one more game," she suggested. "Just for fun. No stress."

Sully grimaced. "Miri … honey … I don't know if that's the best idea …." But her eyes glinted with the promise of a new game. She was like a terrier; she'd never be able to turn down a game, no matter how much she thought it was a bad idea.

"Just one," Miri promised. She drew the deck of cards from behind her back. "Strip poker?"

Sully grinned. "Okay, just the one, though."

Miranda grinned back. "Of course, darl."

#

Miranda lost the first two hands easily, giving up first one boot, then the other.

Scully started to squirm, looking at the cards she held for their third hand. "Look, Miri, if you'd rather not play—"

"I said, I call. Are you showing them, or not?" Her voice and gaze were both steel.

Looking uncomfortable, Sully laid her cards down. Two pair, aces and eights. "It's just a game, though, baby."

"I know." Miranda tried not to let the smile show as she set her own hand down, comprising absolutely nothing. She slowly stipped her uniform shirt off over her head, making sure to wiggle enough for her generous breasts to bounce a little. The cameo necklace nestled between them.

Sully's mouth dropped open. "Whatchoo … whatchoo doing there?"

"I lost the hand, I lose my shirt. Isn't that how we're playing?" Miranda yawned after that, stretching to get the kinks out.

Completely inadvertent that she also managed to thrust her chest forward while doing it.

"Yeah, I … yeah." Sully's eyes hadn't moved from the little pink bow on the front of Miri's bra.

"It's your deal, Sul."

"I know!" Sully grabbed for the cards, but they scattered in a huge spray across the room when Miranda suddenly had to adjust her bra.

"Oh, were we playing Fifty-two Pickup tonight, as well?" Miranda arched one perfect eyebrow, watching as her girlfriend flushed and scrambled to pick up all the cards.

"I got it, don't worry." Sully shuffled, dealt … and promptly lost her first shoe.

The next hand saw Miranda lose her pants, at which point Sully lost several hands in a row, and sat busted down to her panties, regulation white cotton completely unlike the delicate, barely there pair Miri wore.

"Looks like you can only play about one more hand," Miranda purred, shuffling.

The next hand came up bad luck for Miranda, but she wasn't bothered. She watched the fine sheen of sweat appear on Sully's forehead as she worked her way out of the lacy pink bra, tossing it to the side. "And one more hand will decide it. Hmm, I wonder why my boobs are so sore lately … do they look a little tender to you?" She held them, her hands sliding lightly over the pale flesh as she pretended to look for anything wrong.

Sully broke then. She knocked the table aside, and pushed Miri back into the couch, catching that perfect mouth with her own. "Panties. Bed. Now. Please." She tugged at the waist of Miri's underwear, panting in between deep, desperate kisses.

"I'll need something first," Miranda said sternly.

Sully looked at her, eyes dazed, not understanding for a moment. When she did, she grinned. "All right, you _win,_ now off with the damn panties." She took them without waiting for a response, and Miranda's hand came to rest gently on Sully's head as she knelt in front of her.

She sighed when Sully's tongue found the right spot, arching her back. "Mmm, yes yes yes, right there."

Victory had never felt so sweet.


End file.
